There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 37

The nanny’s eyes gleamed.

“Oh, that’s a very valid point.”

“Just a moment. Wouldn’t that be a bit… difficult for the nanny? I think her back would heal faster if she rested comfortably in a quiet place.”

Elencia interjected urgently, but the nanny stubbornly asserted her loyalty.

“I’m fine! I don’t mind if my back heals slowly; I want to assist the Princess by her side.”

She would have to leave the palace as soon as her back was completely healed. If that happened, the nanny’s power would be over.

So, she wanted to stick to Elencia somehow and take root in the palace. Staying cooped up in a room for treatment would mean that the opportunity to influence the Princess would never come.

Philomell defended the nanny.

“Your Highness, the nanny is saying that, so please allow it.”

“Well…”

Then Elencia hesitated and glanced at Count Polan.

“Philomell, are you really sure it’s okay?”

Count Polan seemed to believe that Philomell was too kind and volunteering for a losing role.

“Of course. The nanny will just be lying here, so how could she clash with me? It will be easier for Your Highness to adapt to palace life with the nanny by your side.”

“…If you insist, I will follow your lead. However, as the nanny’s stay becomes prolonged, I will have no choice but to inform His Majesty.”

Count Polan looked down at the nanny and said sternly.

“Be grateful to Philomell and serve Her Highness with all your heart.”

“Yes, sir, of course.”

Count Polan then sought Elencia’s agreement.

“Is that alright with you, Your Highness?”

“…Well.”

When Elencia didn’t answer immediately, the nanny sobbed loudly, adding that she would end up on the streets if she left, and that she had no family to take care of her.

“…Yes, do as you wish.”

Kind Elencia eventually accepted Philomell’s proposal.

“Elencia, don’t worry. I will be by your side to ensure that Your Highness maintains the proper dignity. Even if you grew up among commoners, your noble blood will not disappear. I will completely remove the taint they have instilled.”

The nanny, having achieved what she wanted, grinned.

It wasn’t directed at Philomell, but imagining the nanny’s ‘thorough guidance’ gave her goosebumps.

Leaving the nanny to give Elencia a long lecture on the manners of a princess, Philomell left the place with the Count.

‘Elencia, you haven’t experienced the nanny enough, so you haven’t abandoned your naive belief in people…’

Soon, Elencia would surely want to send the nanny away with her own hands.

Philomell knew the nanny well. The nanny might have been a good caregiver when she was younger, but not now.

She was sure that even an angel who came down to earth would be fed up after spending just a few days with the nanny.

‘I feel a little sorry for Elencia, who will be tormented by the nanny, but it can’t be helped.’

This was all for Elencia’s sake.

Count Polan walked beside her and spoke.

“I am once again impressed by Princess Philomell’s compassionate heart.”

“I’m not a princess anymore.”

“Pardon?”

He was startled that she had simply pointed out the obvious.

“Now that the real princess, His Majesty’s biological daughter, has returned, I am no longer a princess.”

“But, if you are registered in the Imperial family… Have you not yet heard about the registration from His Majesty?”

“I have heard, but I declined.”

“Why? Why did you do that!”

Polan’s mouth dropped open, looking twice as surprised as before.

Philomell was even more surprised by his reaction.

‘Is rejecting the registration such a shocking thing?’

But she soon understood.

They were offering to take in a cuckoo chick [a bird known for laying its eggs in other birds’ nests] that had rolled into another’s nest, usurping the place of their own child. It was an act of grace that would make even a saint weep.

Moreover, if you stopped a passerby and asked them whether they would rather live as the daughter of a sinner or as a princess, how many would choose the former? Not only Count Polan, but from a general perspective, Philomell’s choice would be seen as kicking away an excessive amount of good fortune.

However, she had no intention of listing all the reasons why she didn’t want to be registered. Instead, she decided to make the Count understand from a different angle.

“Registration is absurd. Has there ever been a case of registration like mine in the history of the Belleroph Empire?”

“That is…”

Polan closed his mouth.

As Philomell said, there was no precedent for such a matter in the long history of the Empire. It was about bringing someone who was not related by blood into the Emperor’s family.

Imperial registration is usually carried out for purely political purposes rather than the wishes of the person involved.

First, when the Emperor has no children to inherit the throne. There have been several cases where a bloodline from a branch not too far from the direct line was registered to inherit the throne.

Second, when a marriage alliance must be formed with another country, but there are no suitable children to marry off. In this case, the children of the imperial family or high-ranking nobles are formally registered and then married off.

This did not apply to any of those cases.

In fact, even if registration was necessary for those two reasons, Philomell, who was not a member of the imperial family or nobility, could not set foot in the imperial family. Even if Philomell accepted the offer, the nobles would surely oppose it fiercely.

Unless Justice, who possessed strong imperial power, was prepared to push it through at the cost of a large-scale purge.

‘Of course, that’s not going to happen.’

However, Polan did not give up trying to persuade her and opened his mouth.

“Still, it’s not as if there are no similar precedents at all. The 7th Emperor is said to have pitied the daughter of a vassal who died protecting him and adopted her as his daughter, even though the vassal’s status was that of a commoner. Therefore, it cannot be said that Philomell is not qualified…”

Oh my.

‘The 7th? When was that? About 800 years ago?’

Philomell frowned at the distant past. At that point, it was in the realm of legend rather than history.

As she was recalling what she had learned in history class, something bothered her.

“Wait a minute. Isn’t the 7th an emperor who was posthumously honored?”

“Yes. That is correct.”

Posthumously honored.

A member of the imperial family who was not originally an emperor being posthumously promoted to emperor by his descendants.

Usually, when someone who was not the child of the previous emperor became emperor, they bestowed the title of emperor on their deceased parents.

It was nominal, but it was to compensate for the lack of legitimacy by becoming the child of the previous emperor.

“Since he wasn’t an emperor during his lifetime, there probably wasn’t much opposition even if he adopted a commoner as his child.”

It was a completely different matter from an emperor who reigned while alive adopting a commoner.

“Well. It’s not like there’s no precedent at all, and good things are good…”

“It doesn’t seem like a sufficient basis.”

“That can’t be… I spent three days and nights trying to find this…”

Count Polan rubbed his hollow eyes and whined.

‘He even managed to dig up an anecdote from a time when there weren’t many remaining materials.’

Count Polan, struggling with the musty records in the underground archive of the Imperial Library, was easily imagined.

“Why did you go so far?”

Philomell, feeling a little sorry for him, asked.

“When I told His Majesty that there was no precedent, he told me to bring a precedent by any means. He told me to bring it even if I had to create one…”

“…”

“I’ve been searching all night, and there’s nothing. It’s been over five days since I couldn’t go home and see my daughter’s face.”

Philomell offered a silent condolence to the father of the three-year-old child.

It wasn’t a day or two that Count Polan was rolling around because of the Emperor’s stubbornness, but this was a bit much.

‘I have to do something.’

It seemed that she would have to meet the Emperor directly and negotiate before the poor Count Polan really created a non-existent history.

But there was something she had to do first.

“Count Polan. No, Count.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Even though Philomell had bothered to use honorifics, Count Polan still treated her as a princess, not giving up hope of registration.

‘For the time being, let’s just let him do what he wants.’

Instead, Philomell voiced what she wanted.

“I want to meet my biological mother. Please take me to the prison where that person is being held.”

There was someone she had to meet before leaving this place.

That was Philomell’s biological mother, Katrin Hounds.

Katrin’s story was told to her this morning by Countess Deles. They were having a meal and chatting together when she brought up a scene she had witnessed a while ago.

“Well, I happened to pass by and saw a woman being dragged out of His Majesty’s office. The blood dripping from her hands was so eerie.”

“…A woman? Do you remember what she looked like?”

“Well, she was bowing her head, so I only saw that her hair was brown. The maids there said that the Emperor was very angry, but what crime did she commit? How scary.”

A brown-haired woman.

A person who had committed a crime that would bring her directly before the Emperor at this time.

It was the nanny who materialized what had been only a vague guess, who appeared immediately after.

“Oh dear. That one should end up like her mother in prison…”

The nanny, who couldn’t get up because she had twisted her back, grumbled like that.

It was a grumble close to a soliloquy, but Philomell heard it clearly.

Katrin, the woman who gave birth to Philomell, is in the Imperial Palace.